William Penn Plans the City

Penn's conceptions of Philadelphia may be characterized as one of the
earliest
attempts at utopian city planning, and they certainly represented
the most
extensively 'pre-planned' American city at that time. Paradoxically,
Penn's early
plans grew from his love of the country estate, as opposed to the
metropolis.
Much of his wealth was derived from rents from his rural properties in
England
and Ireland. Perhaps self-exculpatorly, he viewed moneys gained from the
as
land less morally tainted than those gained in trade. Thus his original
vision of
a "greene Country Towne" seeks to replicate this model of life in the New
World.
The first plan called for individual houses to be separated from their
neighbors
by sizable areas of green, thus replicating the gentleman's farm that he
so
loved.

Though Penn envisioned country estates, he could scarcely ignore the
occupation of most of his colony's investors. They were tradesmen, and
trade
would be the economic engine of the new city. So, in addition having to
fertile
farm lands, the 'towne' would still have to be accessible to trading
ships. It
would be situated "in the most Convenient place upon the river for health
&
Navigation." The chosen site, at the convergence the Delaware and
Schuykill
rivers, was already farmed by a heterogeneous group of Swedes, Finns,
Dutch
and English. It was not an ideal port however. Its high banks made
unloading
difficult, and the river froze more readily than did port of New York.
However,
the site also provided a safe, deep harbor and the Schuykill river gave
the best
access to the interior of the state. And extremely fertile farm land
that
surrounded the site of the city could not be ignored.

Centered in the 10, 000 acres that Penn set aside for his 'great towne'
was the
1200 acre site of Philadelphia. This land formed a rectangle joining the
Schuylkill and Delaware rivers, and would form the commercial heart of
his
towne, while 80 acre gentleman's estates would surround this core Each
of
these mansions was to be set at least 800 feet from its neighbor and be
surrounded by fields and gardens. And though this plan proved unworkable
given the geography of the site, Penn would incorporate the same spaced
regularity in his plan for the city. He also kept the concept of a
greenbelt
encircling the metropolis, itself a forerunner of the modern suburb. In
his
revised plan Penn provided a generous amount of room for expansion, far
more
than in any other contemporary American city. Penn thus anticipated two
major
trends in city development: rampant growth, and the desire for a
bourgeois
semi-urban enclave. As well, his plans for the towne proper assume that
each
house will have its own space for a garden. His plans certainly varried
from the
cramped cities of Europe, and have garnered much praise, condemnation,
and
speculation ever since he first published them.

Penn first advertised the layout of his town in Thomas Holme's
Portraiture of
the City of Philadelphia, published in 1683.
As one can see, Penn
designed the city as a rectangular gridiron. Broad and High streets
cross each
other at 'centre square' and divide the city into four quadrants.
These 100 foot wide avenues were at
broader
than the other street, and broader than any street in London. Penn may
have
been influenced by Richard Newcourts plans for rebuilding burnt out parts
of
London, or perhaps by new garrison towns like Londonberry Ireland. In
any
case, his wide, open, rectilinear design was somewhat revolutionary,
though
today seems 'normal' for most American cities.

Penn planned for the city's principal public buildings, the meeting
house,
school, state house, to border centre square. As the map indicates, lots
were
evenly spread across the width of the city, with the prime real estate
facing first
the Delaware, and second the Schuylkill river. Penn originally planned
to
situate his own house near the Schuylkill, at Fairmount, close to the
place
where the city's famed Water Works, and then Museum of Art would stand.
The
lots marked off on the map were either one acre or half an acre in size,
plenty
large enough for all to plant their own gardens. Even the city dweller
could live
in a country-esque manner. Additionally, each quadrant contained
additional
green-space in the form of a small park.

Penn was so interested in parks and gardens in part because he realized
some
of the dangers inherent in the 17th century city. He had lived through
London's
bubonic plague of 1665 and great fire of 1666. And so it is not
surprising that
he envisioned his 'greene towne' as one "which will never be burnt, and
always
be wholesome." (Weigley, 2) Sadly, a little over one hundred years after
Penn
established his city, Philadelphia would be devastated by a series of
yellow
fever epidemics. The dream of a 'wholesome' city was seriously
compromised
by the 'stinking miasmas' of disease. Though like Penn, city leaders
once again
found salvation in both 'greening' and 'cleaning' the towne (by then the
country's largest city, and national capitol) with the establishment of
the
Fairmount Water Works, and its surrounding park. City leaders in the
19th
century also had to contend with the competing interests of business and
public
welfare, though unlike Penn they were not 'proprietors' of the land.
Though as
lord of the manor, William Penn proved a relatively easygoing, and an
almost
always absent, land lord. His contributions in planning the city were
far
reaching, both locally and ationally. Though Philadelphia has grown
outward
far beyond Penn's original design, he still symbollically controlled its
vertical
growth. His likeness atop City Hall (at Centre Square) was deemed to
be
the limit for building height until the mid 1980s; until then Penn's
statue always
looked down on his city. As well, his rectilinear street layout, his
interest in
'suburban' development, and his desire to plan the perfect city, all
foreshadowed many future city planning 'innovations'.